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desertdrover
Engineer
Premium Member
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 Posted - 09/21/2008 : 4:20:01 PM
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This how-to is to show how easy it is to do quick and easy details to a vehicle, which makes all the differences in the world for your layout. It has always been a pet peeve of mine to see an outstanding layout, only to find vehicles on the roads, and at stop signs with no drivers inside. And, this is one of the easiest things to fix. Even vehicle manufactures are coming out with figures in their line of vehicles now a day. I am far from a master vehicle detailer, and others may wish to weather their line of vehicles, and do lots more with them. I just do the simple quick details that make a difference to a viewing “non-model railroader”. We will start this how-to with a Mini Metals HO 1:87 IH R-90 undecorated Cab Van #30178.
We will start by using a drill bit to drill out the tab that holds the vehicle cab together, so we can take the vehicle apart.
Once the vehicle is broken down, these are the parts you have to work with. Some vehicles like this Mini Metals has a nice seat area to work with to place figures on. Or, you can paint the seat interior and steering wheel. Also, the clear plastic window glass can be cut to open windows like I will be doing with the driver’s side window for this project.
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 Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast |
Country: USA
| Posts: 11261 |
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desertdrover
Engineer
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/21/2008 : 4:21:32 PM
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I will continue shortly. Once I get may act together. I pushed post.
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Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 11261 |
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desertdrover
Engineer
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/21/2008 : 4:41:52 PM
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Now let's pick up where we left off. 
I chose to put operating headlights into this truck so I’m going to use Fiber Optic connected to an LED in the box of the truck. First I drilled out the headlight area with a drill bit to fit the fiber optic used. In this case I’m using 0.040 Fiber Optic.
The parts used for the headlights in this project are shown in the picture below. I used Circuitron Fiber Optic 0.040 Item #800-8040. Miniatronics Corp. Yeloglo White 5mm LED with a 470 resistor for 12-14 volt use. And, Miniatronics Corp. heat shrink tubing, so no light would show out around the front of the LED.
The next picture shows some parts put together, and items used for this project. Creative Model Associates .015 wire 3/8” long is used for the mirror arm and a Jewelry & Craft Essentials 2mm faceted acrylic jewel is used for the mirror. .020 wire 1-1/8” long is used for the mud flap bracket and black construction paper was used for the mud flaps, cut 3/8” x 1/4”. The two figures mounted to the seat are a Model Power seated Woman and a Woodland Scenics seated man.
The LED, I drilled two small holes into the front of the LED deep enough not to hit the inner “flag” of the LED, and with two part epoxy, glued two piece’s of fiber optic to the front of the LED to be used for the headlights. And, I soldered the 470 ohm resistor to the cathode side of the LED. You can see I also cut out the driver’s side window of the truck cab.
Before painting the mud flap bracket black, here is a picture showing the mud flaps mounted. I cut a slot into the frame and super glued the wire down into the frame. The mirror on the driver’s side door, also unpainted at this time, was mounted by drilling a 1/32” hole into the door above the door hinge where the old style mirror’s were mounted, and super glued into place and positioned as shown in the picture. Once glued, the bracket and mirror arm was painted.
The next two pictures show the LED in the bed of the truck. I drilled a hole into the floor of the truck and thread the fiber optics through the cab on each side of the seat, and along the inside of the front wheels to the drilled out holes for the headlights. The fiber optic’s were then cut flush with the trucks headlight and glued using Formula 560 canopy glue. Once dry, the fiber optic is held into place and a glass type headlight from the canopy glue was made. What I had used to drill out the headlights was a 1/16” drill for the headlight holes for the fiber optic to pass through. A 24” piece of Miniatronics 28 gauge double strand wire #48-228-25 was used to attach to the LED. A small hole was drilled through the floor, next to the driver side inside rear wheel, was made for passing the wire through the layout to power the trucks headlights.
Here a picture shows the operating headlights, and a view of the rearview side mirror. I also painted the bumper a chrome color instead of the molded black. Except for the flash in the windshield, you can just make out Mr. & Mrs. Gomes.
I could have used fiber optic as well for the rear lights, but I opted to use red rhinestones for this how-to to show that some of my vehicles are detailed with clear rhinestones for headlights, and red ones for rear lights. The layout room lights are enough to make these jewels shine like lights are on the vehicles. For this project I used Next Style iron-on Rhinestone Transfer bought at Wal-Mart. These are super cheap, and the clear and red works great for our modeling needs. I’ve paid lots more for a few at the local hobby stores, and they are the same thing to me. On the bottom left of the picture you can see the rhinestones used for the rear lights mounted to a wire bracket, and a Washington State license plate that I made from going to website: http://www.acme.com/licensemaker/licensemaker.cgi John (Bbags) also talked about this License plate maker site in the morning lounge, vehicle details question of the day. It’s a great source for getting any State license plate you want made up.
The next three pictures show the finished vehicle. The rear taillights and license plate bracket has been mounted into place. The front license plate has been mounted to the front bumper. And a side view picture of the truck shows the mounted rear light & license plate, and the rear view side mirror mounted on the driver’s door. This was just a few hours of a one day project, which makes all the differences in the modeling world.
I hope you enjoyed seeing this project, and it shed a little "light" on things. 
Please post your thoughts and comments on this quick and easy project.  
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Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 11261 |
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Miles
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 09/21/2008 : 5:56:49 PM
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Not bad, I like everything you did witht this lil' R-190, except one thing:
If I'm not mistaken, you can heat up the fiber optic cable ends with a lighter held a little ways away, and then push the pliable melted end into a concave shape like the real headlights on the R-190, because the smaller lights look a bit sloppy, especially because the left light is drilled off-center.
Also this is just a matter of taste, but the International R-190 did in fact come with a black-painted bumper: http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/dmckenzie/tbd_ih_mixer_coles_tbd_6.jpg
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/ih/ih_sleeper1b.gif
I love the idea of using the rhinestones for taillights and the easy to build mupflaps, these are great ideas!
So this truck has to be stationary because of the wiring, or can it battery powered? (perhaps with a magnetic reed switch?)
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HW
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 09/21/2008 : 7:30:39 PM
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Hi,
I like your presentation. Good, clear photography with all parts visible. The steps are well laid out along with ALL the parts used and explained. Great job! Better than the MR mags in my opinion. Of course, there's always room for criticism - It's good to see you're not perfect....
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Country: Canada
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Bbags
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/21/2008 : 7:50:40 PM
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Louis,
Another neat tutorial that I can use since I have a flat bed version of the same truck.
All I need is to find the time to do all these great little projects that you have posted.
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John Bagley
Modeling the Alaska Railroad in HO in Wildwood Georgia. |
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Country: USA
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Chester
Fireman
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Posted - 09/21/2008 : 8:08:13 PM
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Your creativity never ceases to amaze me Lou. I've been fooling with lights for a while now but never got further than running the fiber optic lines. Now I know how to complete them, thanks.
Miles, you're right about heating the fiber optic material too. If you hold it at just the right distance from a flame, it mushrooms into a perfect convex all by itself.
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Don Brimmer
Fireman
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Posted - 09/21/2008 : 8:17:37 PM
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Nice build Louis, thanks for sharing!!
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Country: USA
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desertdrover
Engineer
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/22/2008 : 09:54:10 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Miles
Not bad, I like everything you did witht this lil' R-190, except one thing:
If I'm not mistaken, you can heat up the fiber optic cable ends with a lighter held a little ways away, and then push the pliable melted end into a concave shape like the real headlights on the R-190, because the smaller lights look a bit sloppy, especially because the left light is drilled off-center.
Also this is just a matter of taste, but the International R-190 did in fact come with a black-painted bumper: http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/dmckenzie/tbd_ih_mixer_coles_tbd_6.jpg
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/ih/ih_sleeper1b.gif
I love the idea of using the rhinestones for taillights and the easy to build mupflaps, these are great ideas!
So this truck has to be stationary because of the wiring, or can it battery powered? (perhaps with a magnetic reed switch?)
Hi Miles, you said "the smaller lights look a bit sloppy, especially because the left light is drilled off-center". Well I never clamed to be perfect. This hobby is a fun thing, not a science or perfection. In my opinion anyway. I know about the melting of the fiber optic, but you see this alot bigger through the camera than setting down on a layout. So the lights in a camera lens does look, as you call it SLOPPY.
You also said "R-190 did in fact come with a black-painted bumper: " well for every picture you show with a black bumper, I can show with a crome bumper. As in picture below.
You also said "truck has to be stationary because of the wiring" well I've got an old layout, my trucks once put on the layout stay in one place unless I pick them up and move them. How do you get your truck to drive around your layout?
I'm sorry I can't post perfectly engineered how-to's. I'm just tring to have fun with this hobby, and get way from lifes real problems to be concerned about.
It's my fault, I forgot to ask for constructive criticisum.
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Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 11261 |
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LVRR fan
Engine Wiper
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 Posted - 09/22/2008 : 1:34:53 PM
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Thanks Louis for this great little tutorial. It has several good ideas for us to try and the presentation is real nice.
Rick
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Tabooma County Rwy
Fireman
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Posted - 09/22/2008 : 2:55:53 PM
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Nice tutorial, Louis, well done! I too share your "frustration" with scenes involving vehicles with no drivers. Especially convertibles! It is amazing what a few minor modifications like you've shown can do to enhance the realism of a scene.
One other thing I try to do is to apply a "satin" or "dull" finish, to kill the (in my opinion) unrealistic glossy shine of the out-of-the-box model vehicle.
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Country: USA
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Miles
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 09/22/2008 : 7:59:27 PM
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quote:
Hi Miles, you said "the smaller lights look a bit sloppy, especially because the left light is drilled off-center". Well I never clamed to be perfect. This hobby is a fun thing, not a science or perfection. In my opinion anyway. I know about the melting of the fiber optic, but you see this alot bigger through the camera than setting down on a layout. So the lights in a camera lens does look, as you call it SLOPPY.
You also said "R-190 did in fact come with a black-painted bumper: " well for every picture you show with a black bumper, I can show with a crome bumper. As in picture below.
You also said "truck has to be stationary because of the wiring" well I've got an old layout, my trucks once put on the layout stay in one place unless I pick them up and move them. How do you get your truck to drive around your layout?
I'm sorry I can't post perfectly engineered how-to's. I'm just tring to have fun with this hobby, and get way from lifes real problems to be concerned about.
It's my fault, I forgot to ask for constructive criticisum.
I REALLY REALLY didn't intend to offend you. As I also said in my original post, these are great ideas! I wasn't trying to sound like a smarty-pants expert or anything of that sort, these were just suggestions. 
As for having vehicles be mobile, yes, I do reposition my vechicles around my layout to create variety and so you don't have that same two-tone 55' chevy in every photograph depicting your beautiful scratchbuilt station or a particular RR crossing. That's why I mentioned the reed switch with the battery. Also when I'm cleaning or doing work on the layout, I want to be able to get the vehicles and people out of harm's way.
Modelers all do things differently and that's the best part of seeing other peoples' work: they always approach a solution in a unique way.
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Edited by - Miles on 09/22/2008 8:00:34 PM |
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hon3_rr
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/22/2008 : 9:42:22 PM
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Thanks Lou for the tutorial. I would never have guessed that this is how one can accomplish this level of detailing.
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--KP
Life is to short to make all of the models I want to. |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 4685 |
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Tim Kerkhoff
Fireman
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Posted - 09/22/2008 : 10:55:19 PM
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Louis,
Thanks for the how to, I will add it to my library.
We had a truck very similar to the real one you posted. I couldn't tell you what the bumper color was as it was ripped off when trying to pull out a stuck tractor. I still recall the punishment my Dad gave me for that one.
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Country: USA
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desertdrover
Engineer
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/23/2008 : 12:44:53 AM
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HW-You are right, I'm not perfect and glad not to be, just giving it alot of fun!
John-You said you have a flat bed version of the same truck. I've run the fiber optics down through the layout on other vehicles where there is no box to hide the LED into. I just can't move these type of vehicles once they are mounted without unhooking wires.
Chester-You talked about the mushroom affect on the fiber optic. I have heated the ends and used a concave tool used for snaps to push up against the end and it forms the mushroom shape. Just a thought!
Don-Sharing ideas I can do, and enjoy doing it. Loaning money is a whole other thing! lol
Rick-thanks for saying the presentation is real nice. In school I could never get that right. So I don't know where that came from, guess it's old age setting in.
Al-That's the one thing I've got to get use to. And, that's hitting it with some dullcoat and weathering. I've never mastered weathering and dullcoating. I back off of that.
Kris-It dosen't take to much detailing sometimes to realy make a difference. And it's simple easy things sometimes.
Tim-Sounds like it was a "RED" bumper, and it was behind you. lol
Thank you guys for your comments and thoughts.
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Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 11261 |
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Catt
Crew Chief
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Posted - 09/23/2008 : 09:07:59 AM
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Lou, this is a nice how-to.There are some things I would have done differently buty I didn't write it.
That tip about the rhinestones is going to improve a lot of my truck projects from now on.
About weathering the truck,it is quite ovious that it is well maintained might I suggest a coat of satin finish (Krylon makes a very good one) instead of dull coat.
Thank you sir for this tutorial you have taught this ole furrball some new tricks
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